Sections

In this section:

Capital quiz: Attorney general edition

Many Massachusetts attorneys general have also played other notable roles in politics and beyond. See how many you remember.

He or she was the first African-American attorney general of any state and later became a US senator.

a) Roland Burris

b) Edward Brooke

c) Eric Holder

d) Pamela Carter

He went on to become secretary of defense, US attorney general, and ambassador to the United Kingdom under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

a) James Schlesinger

b) Robert McNamara

c) Edwin Meese

d) Elliott Richardson

He served in the House of Representatives and then lost a Senate race to John F. Kerry before becoming state attorney general.

a) Mike Capuano

b) Jim Shannon

c) Tip O'Neill

d) Chester Atkins

The state’s first female attorney general, she ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2010.

a) Kerry Healey

b) Jane Swift

c) Martha Coakley

d) Therese Murray

He was Middlesex district attorney general before being succeeded by Martha Coakley. He then became attorney general — and was, again, succeeded by Coakley.

a) Thomas Reilly

b) Scott Harshbarger

c) Samuel Sutter

d) Robert Quinn

He was preceded as attorney general by Scott Harshbarger. Before that, he was preceded by Harshbarger as Middlesex district attorney.

a) Elliott Richardson

b) Francis Bellotti

c) Scott Harshbarger

d) Reilly again

After serving as attorney general, he lost a race for governor to incumbent Governor Paul Cellucci. He then served as president of the public interest organization Common Cause.

a) Scott Harshbarger

b) Joe Malone

c) Thomas Reilly

c) James Shannon

He served as lieutenant governor in the 1960s before serving as attorney general in the 1970s and ’80s. He also ran unsuccessfully for governor several times, losing to John Volpe, Kevin White, and John Silber.

a) Christy Mihos

b) Francis Bellotti

c) Jim Rappaport

d) Warren Tolman

This attorney general from the early ’70s sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1974 but lost to Michael Dukakis.

a) Francis Sargent

b) Carroll Sheehan

c) Robert Quinn

d) John Lynch

He served just 16 days in 1967: from the time Edward Brooke resigned the office to take a seat in the Senate to the time Elliot Richardson took office.